Terraforming
Terraforming was the process of modifying the environment of a planet or moon to make it habitable for life. In practice, this often meant modifying the world to be more like class M planets. Its converse was bioforming, which is the process of adapting a species biology and anatomy to the planet. ( ) Process Terraforming began with selecting a planet which has the right mass, gravity, rate of rotation, and balanced periods of day and night. Federation efforts at terraforming were coordinated by Terraform Command and ensured both that there was no life on the planet, and that it would never naturally occur. Next, water had to be be made available for life in water basins. This could be done using hydraulic landscaping, sometimes with the additional step of filtering and re-oxygenating the subsurface water. If the water was hypersaline (incredibly high salt content) portions of it could be desalinated to meet terrestrial and agricultural needs. Then, microorganisms were introduced as the first constituents of the biosphere permitting it's atmosphere into self sustaining oxygen production. As the biosphere expanded, higher order plants were introduced. One of the key metrics of the process being successful was monitoring the amount of vegetation on the planet. Industrial replicators would allow for manufacture of large volumes of volatile compounds and elements critical for life (Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen, Ammonia, methane, etc). Terraformers accelerated the process; thus it would only would take around 30 years to build a habitable world. Given in nature it would take millions or billions of years; or not at all given the planet. ( ) Examples *Atrea IV – a Class M planet, while not terraformed per se, it was in the midst of a planetary core cooldown. The Enterprise-D participated in re-heating the planet's core, thus permitting the world to continue to harbor life. ( ) *Blue Horizon – terraformed by Professor Gideon Seyetik ( ) *Browder IV – a project that was assisted by the starships and in 2366 ( ) *Caldos colony – established in the 22nd century ( ) *Delta 2 – a Class 4 moon terraformed with Prototaxites stellaviatori in order to replenish the 's supply of spores. ( ) *Doraf I – in 2368, the Enterprise-D was scheduled to undertake a terraforming mission here ( ) * – created in 2285 from the Mutara Nebula, but destroyed as a result of the Genesis Device, which contained protomatter ( ; ) * Locations in the Lagana sector by the , also on a terraforming mission. ( ) *Mars – as of 2155, conditions on Mars were sufficiently altered to allow Humans to survive on the surface by only having to use small breathing gear and thermal insulation ( ) *New Halana – terraformed by Prof. Gideon Seyetik ( ) *Penthara IV – terraformed in 2368 to counter an ecological disaster ( ) *Regula – a Class D planetoid whose interior was terraformed as the second phase of Project Genesis ( ) *Velara III – site of the Velara Base; mission abandoned in 2364 after life was discovered on the planet ( ) *Venus – site of several terraforming stations by the 24th century ( ) *Weytahn – a Class D planetoid terraformed by the Andorians for habitation in the 2050s ( ) Technology *Geo-terraforming vessel *Laser drill *Genesis Device See also *Artificial biosphere *Terraforming mission External links * * de:Terraforming ja:テラフォーミング nl:Terravorming ru:Терраформирование Category:Academic disciplines Category:Geography